


Killing Me Softly

by PastyPirate



Series: Our House (in the middle of our street) [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 17:50:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7473933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastyPirate/pseuds/PastyPirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a week of being soulmates, Percy is 100% ready to babysit and spend the night apart from Annabeth. Except Annabeth shows up anyways. </p><p>In which Percy accidentally tortures his soulmate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Killing Me Softly

Growing up on the whole “Love is a hurricane and will tear your life apart and put it back together” ideology meant that Percy expected things to be different after he met his soulmate. He’d expected the world to look different, the sun to shine brighter, the air to smell sweeter. He expected days spent apart from his soulmate to be shrouded in misery and in despair. 

Really the only big difference is that in the last seven days he’d been home for a grand total of an hour every morning to change and have breakfast with his mom. 

And the hickeys. 

Wearing a scarf at the start of summer was too douchey for Percy, so he was forced to walk around with a row of bruises on his neck, he was tempted to stick out his arm and point at Annabeth’s name whenever someone stared, but instead he kept walking. 

The one thing he didn’t see coming was the companionship- the weird sense of feeling whole. If an errant weird thought flitted through his head, all he had to do was pull out his cellphone and text Annabeth. The response was always a satisfying one- she _got_ him. Although the sex was good (Percy would like to point out that the _sex was very good_ ) there were also long talks in the middle of the night, confessions in the dark and jokes over cheeseburgers. He felt whole in a way he hadn’t in years- possibly in his whole life. 

The people who complained about their days spent without their mate being shrouded in misery and despair were close. They were complaining about returning to being half of a whole. 

Sally Jackson raising him on his own suddenly became a million times more impressive. 

Percy always admired his mom and looked up to her, but he couldn’t keep the awe away from his eyes as he sat on the couch and watched her get ready. 

“Are you sure?” Sally asked, checking her reflection in the mirror, “are you positive that you can go a night in Manhattan?”

The _without Annabeth_ was implied, she was stuck at work until late and he was a good son, offering to babysit his little sister. The logical thing would be to spend the night apart. Annabeth lived and worked in Brooklyn, he had a meeting at Sunrise Records at eight in the morning just a few blocks away from his mother’s fifth story walkup. 

“Yeah, I’m positive! Annabeth is going to be working all night anyways. Plus now I get to chill with my favorite sibling,” Percy held his hand up and his little sister slapped it without prompting. Another mark on the list of reasons why she was his favorite sibling. Even if she was his only sibling. 

“Alright, how do I look?” Sally turned, showing off the dress that she’d gotten for the Teacher’s Ball, but Percy couldn’t take the eyes off her face and the smile that spread across it. 

“You look perfect. Knock ‘em dead Mrs. Blofis.” Sally flapped a hand at him before leaning forward to press a kiss against his forehead, and leaning down to press one against her daughter’s forehead. 

“Have a fun time you two, and if you change your mind, Annabeth is more than welcome to come over!” As Sally strode out the door, Percy remembered with great clarity meeting Piper for the first time, and how Percy struggled to look at her every morning after that until the embarrassment went away. 

“Tempting.” He said to the closed door, “but let’s not.”

______

Three hours later he was revisiting the idea.

 _Just got home from work!_ Came the text message from Annabeth as Percy laid on the floor of the living room, the TV playing a movie he wasn’t paying attention to and the baby monitor on his chest relaying the sounds of his sister quietly breathing. 

_Awesome! Heading to bed?_ Percy looked over at the time as he sent the message, the previous night they’d already been in bed for an hour at that point. They hadn’t been asleep but they’d been in bed. 

_Not yet._ The text was quickly followed by a photo of Annabeth sitting on the edge of her bed, the bed he had watched her make that morning, frowning into the camera. His empty half of the bed behind her.

He scrambled up from the floor and went into his room. He used to have the big room- or what passed for big in Manhattan. But he passed the room on to his sister, and took over what had been Paul’s study- read: a closet with a window. His twin bed had been untouched for nearly a week, it was in the same disarray as the last morning he’d woken up unmated. He dropped onto a corner of his bed, and lifted up his camera, he put on the biggest frown he could muster and snapped a photo to send to Annabeth. 

_What’s this? A shirt?_ Her response made him smile, he tugged off his shirt and shifted the phone further so she could see more of him. 

_Better?_ He flopped down onto the bed, grinning and waiting for her response. The loneliness that her absence had caused seemed to flit away. 

Her response had him blushing. 

“Yes” he muttered quickly, before typing out a response, “yes to sexting-”

A clatter came from the bathroom and Percy bolted upright, flinging down his phone and running to the bathroom. 

His sister- too much like him for her own good- was banging on the doors that held all the cleaning supplies and wailing like, well, a baby. 

“Are you kidding me?” Percy asked her, scooping her up before looking back at the nursery across from the bathroom, “are you magic? Do you have secret climbing abilities?” 

In response she yanked the soap off of the counter and flung the bottle at him, whacking him in his chest as she kept crying. 

“Oh my _gods._ ” Percy had heard of the terrible twos, but she wasn’t even two yet and she was already a late night terror. 

“Let’s walk baby okay?” He strolled through the apartment, jiggling her as best as he could, but the crying didn’t stop. He checked her diaper (thankfully empty) and tried to feed her food (did not go well). It’d been months since he sat for her, but she’d found freakish strength in that time, probably inherited from their mother. Anything she could grab, she did grab and then fling. Including hydrogen peroxide that had been on the counter (unsafe much?) baking soda, small figurines, six dvds, all of Paul’s Game of Thrones books, and several stuffed animals. 

“How am I supposed to make you a bottle, if you don’t let me go in the kitchen?” Percy finally asked, staring longingly at the pot they used to heat up water to warm up her milk. He imagined getting halfway through the procedure and her yanking the boiling pot of water off the counter and onto him. 

The cries finally melted down into a whimper when the door buzzed. When she cried again he wanted to cry with her. 

“Why?” Was all he asked as he pressed on the mic button, unsure if anyone could hear him over the baby’s wails.

“Percy?” Came the response, and Percy slammed on the door button to let Annabeth in. 

“Thank the gods you’re here,” Percy said as he flung the door open. Annabeth was wearing a sweater he’d left at her apartment that boasted his high school swim team, along with an unsure face, he tugged her in and kicked the door shut behind her. “Please tell me you know how to warm up a bottle.”

“Yes-” there was a blush high on her nose, spreading across her cheeks, “I know how to-”

“Please, please-” he gestured towards the kitchen, and Annabeth followed his lead, dropping her bag onto the floor to head into the kitchen. If she noticed that every appliance was blue she didn’t say anything. Percy followed her with the wailing baby as he did his best to calm her. 

Annabeth quickly filled the pot with water and looked around for the bottles, Percy opened the fridge door and pointed as best as he could without getting the little terror near the fridge full of glass containers and liquid food. 

Percy didn’t spare second thought and went back to begging his sister to pull her shit together. 

“Why are you crying? Why?” The baby just kept wailing and Percy hefted her higher. Annabeth kept her eyes on the water and the bottle, not needing further direction. The sight of his name on her arm reminded him of their first meeting and an idea came to his head, “Is a song? Do you want a song?” 

Percy didn’t know many lullabys, but he did know late nineties grunge and rock. 

“ _Everything is gunna be alright Rockabye- Rockabye._ ” The rest of the lyrics came to mind, and Percy realized it wasn’t the best song to sing, not that Shawn Mullins was ever a good idea. His mind scrambled to come up with something more appropriate -”ok, wait I got this- ah screw it you don’t understand me anyways-” 

Percy leaped into his rendition of _One Headlight_ by the Wallflowers, a song his mom used to sing to him when they crowded in his bed, a chair wedged under the doorknob to keep Gabe out of his room. The song always had torn his heart in two, being curled under his mom’s arm and fully aware that she would do anything for him, and the terror of knowing that Gabe was just out in the living room, raging about something and seconds away from raging towards them. 

“ _Come on try a little, nothing is forever, there’s got to be something better than in the middle, but me and cinderella, we put it all together-_ ” Her cries had lessened and now she was looking up at him with watery eyes, “something less depressing maybe?”

He looked up at Annabeth, who was ignoring the water to stare at him, and another song leapt into his head, “ _Lady, running down to the riptide, taken away to the darkside- I wanna be your left hand man_ -”

“The bottle’s ready,” Annabeth blurted out, as Percy kept singing and took the bottle from her, no Jackson could resist food, and the truth carried over for Jackson-Blofises. He kept singing as his sister greedily drank, the song wrapped to a close and he floundered looking for another song to sing. He looked up at Annabeth again, and realized he hadn’t greeted her. 

“ _Hello_ -” he started, with a wide grin. 

“Vetoing adele” Annabeth said with a head shake. 

“ _Is it me you’re looking for? I can see it in your eyes, I can see it in your smile-_ ” he transitioned, at her wince he changed the song again, “Rather, _Hello Darkness my old friend-_ ”

She shoved the bottle away and Percy hefted her up as she yawned, Percy stopped singing long enough to talk to her, “alright there buddy, are you all cried out?” 

As if his sister could understand him, she nodded against his shoulder before passing out. He patted her back a few times, in a halfhearted attempt to burp her. Annabeth moved back into the kitchen to clean up the bottle prep, “leave it, I got it.” 

Percy jerked his head towards the couch, “sit down and relax, I’m gunna put the baby down.” 

Annabeth didn’t listen, instead following him into the baby’s room. 

“You guys really do not care about gender norms do you?” She looked at the walls that were predominantly blue with white flowers spiraling on the walls. 

“Blue is my mom’s favorite color, but this used to be my room. We added the white when we turned it into a nursery.” He looked around the room and at the silver moonlace he’d left for the baby, before turning back to Annabeth, “we’re big on blue in this family.”

“Is that why you drink blue gatorade like crazy?” She asked with a grin, and Percy just smiled back. It finally sank in that the one person he spent all day hoping to see was standing next to him. 

“Hey there wise girl,” he tugged her close, happy that he wasn’t covered in baby vomit, “I missed you.” 

Her hands went to his hips as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a kiss that was innocent enough for a nursery. 

“Hey, seaweed brain, you’re killing me,” at Percy’s confused look, Annabeth arched an eyebrow and looked down. 

Suddenly Percy realized that he’d never put his shirt back on, the hand on his hip had a finger edging below his jeans. The blush on Annabeth’s cheeks made so much more sense now.

“Sorry,” he apologized, feeling not at all sorry. “Do you want me to put on a shirt?”

“No.” She responded frankly, and Percy let out a laugh. 

His sister whimpered in response, and Percy shot a worried look at the crib, 

“Let’s leave her alone,” he gestured towards the door and Annabeth stepped out, Percy glanced around the room at the destruction the Jackson siblings had wrought. “Ah fuck, I gotta clean.”

“Okay, I’ll head back to Brooklyn-” Annabeth started, but Percy shot her a frown, “you have a meeting in a few hours-”

“ _But Darling, stay with me,_ ” He sang with a grin. 

“Fine, but only to help clean up,” when Percy opened his mouth to protest, “Nope, I’m helping you clean.” 

“Fine.” Percy started picking up items and shoving them back to where they belong, “as long as I get to thank you appropriately later-”

“Percy, you’ve got a bright blue baby towel over your shoulder, how can you talk about _thanking me appropriately_ when we just-”

“I meant cooking you breakfast! Not, whatever you’re thinking-” he paused in the doorway of the bathroom, holding the baking soda and peroxide, “although I’m more than willing to do that if you want me to.” 

Annabeth ignored him to point to the baking soda, “why do you have cooking equipment in your bathroom.”

“Uh, no, this is for dying hair,” Annabeth walked over to the doorway, where Percy opened the mirror, showing the bowl and the brush his mom had stowed away there, out of baby reach, “Mom sometimes dyes her hair.” 

“How can you dye hair with Hydrogen Peroxide and baking soda?” Annabeth asked, curiosity had her pulling the baking soda out of his hand to look at the packaging, “The chemistry-”

“Well I’m not positive about the chemistry-” he’d taken the course to get his biology degree, but it’d been a steep uphill battle in the underworld- tartarus even. “I mean I can show you.” 

She looked at his hair before frowning and looking down at the packaging, “I like your hair.” 

“It’ll grow out, I won’t do my whole head.” She arched an eyebrow up and he was filled with the sudden need to show her _everything_. 

“Okay look-” Percy started rambling as he went through the directions, pulling out ingredients and mixing them together as he explained. He also told her the story of helping his mom dye her hair “-Then she helped me dye my hair and I had red hair for a summer, it was cool.”

“Why did you dye your hair?” She asked, staring with fascination at the tinfoil on his head, he’d sidestepped the meat of the story. 

“I’d wrecked my step dad’s car and-” he paused as if searching for the words. He wanted to sugar coat it, but this was _Annabeth_ his _soulmate_ , “he tried to kill me.”

The terror fueled life of twelve year old Percy Jackson wasn’t one he revisited often, but he couldn’t regret telling Annabeth. Her eyes widened and she stepped in close, “what happened?”

“We just, we laid low for awhile. Mom dyed our hair and we went out to Long Island. When camp started she got me a trim so my hair was black again, told Chiron about it, and went off. When she came to pick me up-” he shrugged, “Gabe was gone. And she’s never talked about it.”

“And you just came back here like nothing happened?” Annabeth gripped his ungloved hand, and Percy felt a little ridiculous, standing his bathroom with a bright blond streak on the way and his soulmate clutching his hand. 

“Well we moved here, and she enrolled me in a different school, then she met Paul and-” he shrugged, pointing at the baby towel that he’d thrown on the rack. 

“Is your mom a secret superhero?” Annabeth asked, and Percy grinned. 

“I was thinking that earlier,” Percy went back to dealing with his hair, as he spoke, recalling the final steps, “I mean, when my dad died, she had to raise me on her own and she was stuck with Gabe because she got tied up in some stuff but she never faltered or gave up.” 

He blew his hair with the dryer as Annabeth leaned against the counter, there was a small smile on her face that made his heart clench. As he studied his reflection, she studied his face, crossing her arms as she looked at it. 

“It’s awful.” He said with a frown. 

“Yeah, it’s kinda bad.” She turned and looked at the cabinet. “Ohh look silver.” 

She pulled it out and held it up, “I think a streak of silver would look better than a streak of blonde.”

He looked at her long blonde hair, braided over her shoulder. “Wanna match?” 

Twenty minutes later they studied their reflections. 

“I can’t tell if it’s dignified or ridiculous.” Annabeth leaned forward, her streak was longer by default, her hair was longer after all. His was a small burst of color in a black sea. Hers tangled in with the blonde, blending in while standing out. 

“It’s definitely dignified,” Percy leaned forward to wash his hands. 

“Do you get the feeling that we’re more-” Annabeth paused, tilting her head as Percy looked up into the mirror at her, “soulmatey then most?” 

Percy shifted to look at her instead of the reflection, “I have spent the last week resisting the urge to write a song about it, everything I write comes out incredibly cheesey.” 

Annabeth stood up on her toes and pressed her lips against his, Percy threaded his fingers through her hair and leaned down. Kissing her never got old to him, he never thought it would get old. 

“Okay so plan,” Percy said as Annabeth’s landed flat on her feet again, grinning up at him, “Let’s clean up like crazy and go make out in my room.” 

“Good idea,” Annabeth turned out of the bathroom as Percy scrambled to clean the counters and the sink, shoving the leftover supplies in the cabinet. 

By the time he came out of the bathroom, the living room was back to normal, and Annabeth was coming out of the kitchen. He got to her bag before she did and picked it up, taking steps backward into his closet/room. “I can’t believe we couldn’t go one night without each other.”

“Well you didn’t respond to the photo, and at first I thought you had fallen asleep but then-” 

“The photo?” Percy spun around and grabbed his phone, Annabeth tried to grab at his phone but he was faster and slightly taller. He clicked on the image and it expanded as his grin did. 

Annabeth elbowed him in the gut and he dropped the phone but it was already too late. She grabbed his phone and was efficiently deleting it, “Yeah, I think no response to that definitely constitutes you coming all the way to Manhattan to check on me. Had it been a normal situation I would’ve definitely responded to that.”

“Oh stop it,” she sat heavily on his bed, which made him smile even wider than the photo had. 

“It’s okay that you’ve deleted it, because it’s seared in my brain but uh-” Percy grinned and sat heavily next to her, “maybe I should see the real thing just in case?” 

Annabeth rolled her eyes but pushed him down onto the bed before straddling him, he counted it as a win. Her hands went straight for his belt, causing him to jerk upwards in surprise. 

“Whoa-” Percy started to say, his voice squeaked as she shoved his pants down. “Someone is more eager than usual,” he tried to state plainly, but his voice wavered as her hands went straight to work. 

“Well _someone_ has been a monstrous tease all night-” Annabeth tugged off her shirt and flung it to the corner. Percy’s hands moved to cup her breasts automatically, like a call and response that was ingrained deep in his bones. 

“I have not been-” Annabeth cut him off with a quick twist that had his eyes rolling into the back of his head and his toes curling. 

“Yes! You have! With your shirtlessness and your singing- and holding a baby! What are you doing to me seaweed brain?” Percy didn’t have a chance to respond before Annabeth continued, “I’ve always heard the argument of biological imperative but it didn’t make sense until I saw you holding a baby and being domestic- I don’t even want kids!” 

“Can we please not talk about my sister right now?” To Percy’s dismay, Annabeth responded by letting go of him entirely. 

“You’re killing me Percy Jackson.” Annabeth propped her fists over his shoulders and smiled down at him. 

“Sorry?” He shrugged a bit and grinned, Annabeth responded by rolling her eyes and unhooking her bra. “Okay, it’s really hard to feel bad when you keep taking your clothes off.”

“I’m not ready to have children right now, or even to deal with the concept of eventually having kids-” Annabeth stood up, kicking off her jeans as she did so, Percy ran his fingers through the dry half of his hair, all the moisture in his mouth disappearing as he looked up at Annabeth. “I wasn’t planning on having all of these _feelings_ and suddenly having to think about things like where we’re going to live and our hypothetical children and how I can support you as you follow your dream to be a rockstar-”

“You’re talking about emotional support right? Because all I need is emotional support-”

“-Then you pop out of nowhere, with your singing and your body, and your stupid smile-” Percy’s mouth hitched at that and Annabeth poked his chest, “We have got to talk about this!”

“Right now?” Percy gestured to where she was straddling him, he wanted to point out that he wasn’t the only tease in this relationship but he was also worried that she’d respond by teasing him more. 

“Yes right now, because if we don’t do it right now we’ll end up doing this-” she gestured to his junk, which Percy wasn’t sure how to feel about his junk being referred to as a ‘this,’ but he didn’t get a chance to interject, as Annabeth kept speaking, “then we’ll cuddle and in the morning we’ll do it again and go about our very busy and very different lives only to repeat the process all over again tomorrow night. It seems I can’t be within five feet of you without wanting to get my hands on you-”

“Same goes on that front.” Percy raised his hand as if he was answering a question, and she smiled down at him. “Okay let’s do this. We’re waiting on the baby front until we’re both ready.”

“Yes. And supporting you while you become a rockstar-” 

“All I need is emotional support and for you to occasionally come where ever we’re touring if our tour lasts longer than we can handle.” Percy didn't remind her that they currently couldn't handle more than one night apart, he figured that it'd be better to talk logistics later. When they weren't naked in his bed. Percy carefully placed his hands on her outer thighs, to keep her close but to stay away from any motions that might distract them from the conversation. 

“Nope, I want you to move into my apartment eventually and I know rent is more expensive then living with your mom-” Annabeth stared up at the ceiling contemplatively.

“Okay, who is saying I don’t pay rent because I do!” Percy’s hand drifted north and Annabeth’s hand smacked it without thinking.

“I know you do, but- how about this, you move in with me, and I’ll cover your portion of the rent any month you’re short while you’re making it big?” Annabeth looked back down at him, and Percy struggled to think as he stared up into her eyes. 

“I don’t want you to have to worry about paying for my half of the rent. How about I move in officially at the end of this tour? Then in the fall I can start working as we work on the next album and save up enough for next summer?” Percy knew that getting big on their first tour was a long shot, but the tour had been in the works for a long time, even if he wanted to throw all his plans over in order to move in with his soulmate as soon as possible. 

“Will you let me help you financially if you can’t make ends meet?” Annabeth said it like a challenge. 

“Only if I’m on disability or for some extenuating circumstances can’t work,” Percy held up a hand to keep her from speaking, “it’s undue stress on you that I don’t want to put on you. I refuse to be a deadbeat soulmate who just runs around taking advantage of a supportive soulmate. I was planning on moving out at the end of the summer when Jason’s lease was up. We were going to move in together. I’m also going to help with utilities until I move in, it’s only fair as I’m abusing the AC unit just as much as you.”

“I’ll let up on pressuring you to let me pay for your half of the rent if you don’t pay utilities for the summer,” Annabeth crossed her arms and Percy wanted to hit his head against something. 

“Seriously? Annabeth, we’re almost naked and we’re arguing about utilities-” at Annabeth’s face he let out a sigh, “okay fine, I can live with that, but I’m fairly certain any agreements we make right now won’t hold up in a court of law.”

“Last thing,” Annabeth flicked her hair over her shoulder, the long grey streak glinting in the light.

“Yeah?” Percy asked, his heart creeping up to his throat. 

“I love you, a lot. And I’m fairly certain that even if there were no soulmates in the world I’d still love you.” Annabeth smiled down at him, and Percy just grinned back up at her before tugging her down for a long kiss. 

“I love you too,” Percy said, holding Annabeth close, “and I’m really glad you’re my soulmate even if you insist on torturing me.” 

“You started it,” Annabeth shot back. In response Percy rolled them both over and focused on the important issue at hand, which was the fact that Annabeth was mostly naked in his bed, with a matching grey streak in her hair and a smile on her face.

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this sitting in my google docs for awhile. I ended up rewriting the ending and lopping off about half of it. I wasn't going to post it but then I saw that it was Annabeth's Birthday. So let's have Annabeth get tortured in the best way. 
> 
> The title is from Killing Me Softly by the Fugees. 
> 
> Percy sings (in order) the following. 
> 
> Rockabye by Shawn Mullins  
> One Headlight by The Wallflowers  
> Riptide by Vance Joy (I couldn't resist)  
> Hello by Adele  
> Hello by Lionel Richie  
> Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel  
> Stay with Me by Sam Smith.  
> I started writing this after reading the latest book and getting carried away with the idea of Percy as a big brother.


End file.
